John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, as a whole, was what I’d call a decent novel.  It was neither completely riveting, nor was is a total bore.  My main  concern throughout the whole novel, though, was not what Knowles intended.  While I felt that Knowles’ plan was for readers to reflect on the effects that WWII had on the youth of the era and how their psyche was affected, I found myself more interested in what Finny would do next to cause Gene frustration and whether or not the boys had a slight romance, which was pretty much what the rest of the class was thinking, too.

Although the novel did turn out to be a good read, I feel as though it should have ended in a different way.  While I feel that the abruptness of Finny’s death was both necessary and well placed, Gene should have had some sort of reaction to it.  Gene simply standing there, no tears, no emotions, no nothing, lacks conviction.  Finny was Gene’s best friend. If BreAnna randomly died as the result of a freak accident that I caused, I certainly wouldn’t just stand there.  I’d at least shed a tear.  Maybe that’s just me.

I do, however, think that Knowles did an outstanding job in indirectly and discreetly characterizing Gene and Finny’s relationship, regardless of whether it was platonic or not.  The dynamic that the boys shared was that of a pair of siblings: caring and concerned, yet questioning and sometimes a little critical.  The fact that the boys gave off a certain vibe is irrelevant to the fact that they were closely bonded, although I do believe that the intimacy of their relationship caused gene to go insane.

Overall, this is definitely a book that I would recommend, though most likely only to fans of things such as The Dead Poet’s Society or The House Of Annubis, as they are thought-provoking dramas that take place at private schools. This book comes recommended by myself and I’m sure the rest of the class feels the same way about referring it to others.

John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace takes place in a small New England town that is built in and around the campus of the Devon school, and all-boys’ military preperatory academy.  The story is told through a first-person flashback by Gene Forrester, an ex student of Devon, during which he reflects on his years at Devon and the death of his best friend, Phineas, or “Finny”, that he initially caused.

In the beginning, Gene narrates himself walking around the grounds of the Devon school until he comes upon an immense, extremely old oak tree that he leads the readers to believe  held great significance to him at one point in time. As he wanders by the tree, Gene’s narration turns to flashback and he begins to relive his last couple of years in school.

Gene’s flashback begins during the summer of 1942, Finny convinces Gene to jump out of the previously mentioned tree and into the river below.  After doing so, both boys form what is know as the “Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session,” and begin a ritual of jumping from the tree every night, along with their friends, Leper, Brinker, and a few others.  Gradually, Gene begins to notice more Finny’s excellent physical ability that he has manifested in sports.  Finny breaks the school’s swimming record on his first try, invents a brand new game that is clearly tailored towards difficulty of the utmost degree, and awards of all sorts engraved with Finny’s name.  Gene believes that, since he envies Finny’s athletic ability, that Finny must, in turn, envy Gene for his academic skills.  While this proves to be untrue, Gene does not find out about his blindness towards Finny’s character until later after he jounces the limb Finny is standing on during their evening tree ritual.  Because of Gene jouncing the limb, Finny falls and shatters his leg, ending his athletic career forever and, ultimately, his life.  Gene feels immense guilt for having essentially ruined his best friend’s life, but is unable to confess until much later after finny is sent home for several weeks.

Whilst on leave for break, Gene visits Finny and speaks the unthinkable truth about causing Finny’s accident, a fact that is immediately denounced by Finny and causes a sort of falling out between the boys.  Finny soon returns to school when, upon skipping his first day of class to go to the gym with Gene, he announces that since his goal of competing in the 1944 Olympics has been, ironically, crushed, he will train Gene to go instead.  After many weeks of training, Gene and Finny find out that their friend Leper, who had previously enlisted to the Army, has gone AWOL as well as insane.

The boys’ friend Brinker decides that he is suspicious about Finny’s accident and organizes a sort of tribunal in order to conclude gene as the perpetrator of Finny’s accident.  Finny replies to this by saying he doesn’t care and storming out, which leads him to fall on a set of stairs and break his leg again.  Gene then goes to visit Finny in the infirmary and is sent away in an angry outburst.  He then falls asleep at the football stadium and wakes in resolve to go and visit Finny again.  The boys reconcile and all seems well until later when the doctor allows bone marrow to get into Finny’s bloodstream and flow directly to his heart, killing him.  When Gene learns of Finny’s death, he is strangely calm and decides that he will always be a part of Finny.   After they graduate, the rest of the Devon boys go on to enlist in various branches of the military and gene continues to ponder Finny’s constant lack of hostility towards others, a trait that Gene believes is not natural to the human heart.